Downtown Nanaimo on a Thursday night.

On Thursday night, two events happened in downtown Nanaimo. The first was the Commercial Street Night Market and once again it was a great success. This is a great gathering and I certainly hope that it becomes a permanent one. It is events like these that bring people together in our town and help break down barriers. We could have so many events in the downtown like this over the course of a year – if the city was an active partner.

The second event was the official announcement by Tyler Brown that he is running for council. The event was held at Mon Petit Choux. It was standing room only, and Tyler gave a great speech about his vision for Nanaimo. There are now 20 declared candidates for council and the list will continue to grow over the next few weeks.

There have been many campaign launch events by council candidates in recent weeks, something we did not see during the last election campaign. I think this shows a much higher level of interest by the electorate in our community, and that this election will be a turning point for Nanaimo. I am excited, and I hope you are too.